QOTD: Are You Always Fixing PCs for Others?

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...and cell phones, mp3 players, digital cameras, home theater equipment, and, of course, buying advice on any/all of the above. It's a way of life, and I'd be lying if I said it bothered me.
 
[citation][nom]Frodaddy6[/nom]I hate when people want me to babysit their artifacts for 10 hours for a Hot-and-Ready or $10.[/citation]

Is that Hot-and-Ready as in Little Ceasers? Just wondering cause we get those all the time here; except they're only $5!!
 
Yes, for friends, family, .. everyone.

Top issues:
1. Viruses/spyware/malware
2. Slow PC (99% of the time they just need a defrag and less cr*p loading at startup or thier profile is HUGE)
3. Application Error messages
4. Windows Error MSGs
5. Hardware Failure
6. System builds/upgrades
 
Always, being known as the "go to guy" both in my family and with friends I'm always getting texts or im's saying "help my computer broke", or "how do I get this to work" or "can you come over to help fix my computer?"

Sometimes it is fun but other times it gets annoying....
 
Yep..I've been fixing all my friends/family computers for years. Plus I was the net admin for my college fraternity. I don't talk to most theose guys anymore, but they still call me occasionally with computer problems even though it's been years. If you like beer (which I do) just charge beer for computer work for friends(it's not weird like asking money from your good friends/family). All my family knows that if they are going to ask me to fix their computer there had better be some cold ones in the fridge.

The funny thing is all the computer fixing I have done has lead me to my job now; The IT department of an engineering company.
 
[citation][nom]techtre2003[/nom]Is that Hot-and-Ready as in Little Ceasers? Just wondering cause we get those all the time here; except they're only $5!![/citation]

Yea if you like card board. Hate that pizza. Bring out the good stuff. Usually ends up being local specialty Pizzaria!!
 
[citation][nom]waikano[/nom]Yea if you like card board. Hate that pizza. Bring out the good stuff. Usually ends up being local specialty Pizzaria!![/citation]

Agree they don't have anything on "real" pizza, but for fast food you could do a lot worse for $5, heck you can't even get a "value meal" at McD's for that anymore. Plus, that pizza got me through a lot of nights back in college (late night munchies)!!!
 
Even being a net admin at work - people are constantly asking to fix their pc's at home. Relatives, friends, friends of friends, word spreads fast if you can fix it. Most the time - user error or problems from viruses/ad-spy-mal-ware. Rarely is it hardware related.
 
I am working on a computer nearly every week and I enjoy doing it whether I am charging them or not. I have found the most common problems, by a very large margin, to be viruses and malware because they just had to have that kitty kat wallpaper or that smilie pack or 1001 ways to play solitaire game pack...that and the over all slowness of their computer because they are using crap like Norton or McAfee.
 
[citation][nom]techtre2003[/nom]Is that Hot-and-Ready as in Little Ceasers? Just wondering cause we get those all the time here; except they're only $5!![/citation]
Yeah nasty Little Caesars. People don't want to pay what you're worth.
 
What I don't understand is, say I'm a lawyer. People wouldn't ask me to represent their gun charge for free, so why can't they pay to have their computer serviced? They wouldn't walk to Geek Squad talking that free garbage.
 
[citation][nom]Frodaddy6[/nom]Yeah nasty Little Caesars. People don't want to pay what you're worth.[/citation]

I would guess that's true in a lot of cases. I think I'm pretty fortunate with the people I help out. I have to help my dad out quite a bit, but come on he's my dad I couldn't ever repay him for everything he did for me. Besides that I have a friend who gives my daughter free horseback riding lessons for work done and another who has helped me quite a bit working with me on my car. I just figure it all evens out. If I get tired of helping someone all the time I just start to play dumb. "man I don't know it's got me stumped" :)
 
Never do this, even if you get something you want in return! It will likely cut back and the cost for you will likely be much higher that what you initially got in return (free time is the cost). The more people you help "just once", the more will come back begging for help (again and again). It may eventually ruin some relationships as well.
Since some time, I've been doing such service just for me alone. If something breaks, I know I'm not obliged to help someone else (and I can cope with my own failures that affect just me).
 
I am the go-to guy for fixing others PCs.

In the beginning, about 8 years ago, I would be presented with a PC that wouldn't boot or, after boot, would perform very strangely. Maybe 50% of these problems were malware-related caused by allowing teenager access.

Starting about 4 years ago, there was a rash of requests to help set up WiFi networking and rootkit malware.

More recently, its settled into three primary categories, slow PC due to tons of anchor-laden startup programs, usage-questions about new software GUI versus old versions (Office 2007, Vista, &c) and problems associated with AVG software after attempting to uninstall.

Of course, most of the requests come to me over the phone with the expectation (hope, really) that I can somehow divine and resolve their vague and nebulously described problem while on the phone. While I can some of the time, most of the time I end the 30 minute frustrating call with, "I'll need to have direct hands-on access to the PC before I can analyze the real problem."
 
I can't stand it. At first it was a hobby, building machines for my cousins and relatives. But as they multiplied, the more problems cropped up on their machines.

That is why I have zero sympathy for virus writers. Hang them dead and make an example of them. They cause me a ton of misery.
 
I have friends and friends of friends who ask me to fix computers. For these scenarios, I charge a $75 consultation fee. The response I get is "Oh, that's okay, I'll take care of it...". Suddenly, they're experts now? LOL
 
I have one that I'm delivering to my buddies wife tonight. Not only did I have to remove the malware from the machine, but I had to fix a Compaq AMD issue that looped reboots after installing service pack 3, I doubled their memory from old memory I had lying around, stuck in a Radeon 9800 Pro instead of their onboard graphics, and gave them an old combo DVD/CD burner I had since their son broke the tray in their old one.

All for free, I can't charge people for helping them. The parts were all destined for a dumpster at some point in the future. My neighbors and even the family of my neighbors all bring their computers to my house for repair, everyone at work gets free advice or repairs. So far I've got a few cases of beer, a couple of gift cards, and much appreciation, but no money. My wife thinks I should open a repair shop.
 
Answer: Freaking a million times a year and I don't even make business doing it - I think I should start charging...anyways

Common problems: People just not doing the basics like regular antivirus updates, defrag etc.

PSU fried is a very common one
Hard Drive failure / Lightning strikes are also quite common

Less frequently are faulty RAM, Printer problems and sound or driver issues. MS Office corrupt default template, blown or malfunctioning USB ports.
 
so many people was asking me for help with there pc i went ahead and started my own pc repair company like two months ago an now i have 6 employees that i keep busy 50+ hours a week i went from working at a gas station making at most $250.00 a week to bringing home over 3000.00 easy i could take home more but i put my extra earnings back into the company to expand i eventually want to start my own line of custom gaming rigs i already have a high school buddy drawing up some case ideas and company emblem
 
I have over a dozen family and friends who regularly come to me when they have questions or want anything done. I built most of their PC's, and I upgrade and maintain them as well. I guess I'm pretty much the go-to guy in my circle. It has good benefits sometimes though.

I also have 3 PC's at home. My wife's isn't bad, she doesn't do much with it so it rarely gives any problems. My little girls on the other hand, are always jacking things up on theirs even if we've just been over what they're not doing right. Hopefully they'll learn soon. Mine, well I wouldn't know crap about PC's if I didn't have mine (in all it's configurations through the years) to play with. I screw things up on a regular basis and then have to figure out how to get it running right again. I've worked on thousands of computers at work and I've not learned as much on them as I have sitting right here.
 
Every time someone brings me a PC to fix, when I'm done I always set the desktop wallpaper to boot to a picture of a woman's BIG FAT ASS. That will stop repeat customers for sure.
 
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